Far from Home, Nepal (70 images)

In today's hyperconnected world, many developing countries find that their most lucrative export is people.
In the past five years almost 700 Nepali migrant workers have lost their lives in order to build the richest country in the world. Enslaved by a system of bonded labour, they drop like flies, leaving behind thousands of families ruined by debts. We went to Nepal to investigate.

Nepalis make up the bulk of the workers in Qatar, with more than 400,000 of them employed...more »

In today's hyperconnected world, many developing countries find that their most lucrative export is people.
In the past five years almost 700 Nepali migrant workers have lost their lives in order to build the richest country in the world. Enslaved by a system of bonded labour, they drop like flies, leaving behind thousands of families ruined by debts. We went to Nepal to investigate.

Nepalis make up the bulk of the workers in Qatar, with more than 400,000 of them employed as construction workers, drivers and cleaners. Forced to flee one of the poorest country in the world in order to feed their families, once in Qatar they become entangled in a web of abuses that originates in Nepal, where an array of unscrupulous brokers, recruitment agencies and corrupt officials trick them into signing crooked contracts and expensive loans. With no other option to repay their debts, they are forced to work in Qatar at any condition, no matter how dangerous and poorly paid their jobs are.

We visited Nepal to collect the distress of the affected families, speaking also with injured returnee workers, government officials, human rights organization and recruitment agencies, as well as with some of the 1,700 youngsters who leave Nepal everyday to find employment abroad. These are their stories.« less